Erik Laurin

Name: Erik Laurin

Gender: Male

Age: 18

Grade: 12

School: Bayview Secondary

Hobbies and Interests: Family, Track and Field, Anti-Bullying

Appearance: Erik is tall and lanky, 6'5 and weighing about 190 lbs. His hair is blond and curly, as well as down to just past his shoulder blades, but he typically keeps it in a ponytail. His features are angular, with a sharp nose and prominent cheekbones, and he has a small amount of acne around his chin and cheeks. His eyes are blue, and relatively large compared to the rest of his face.

His typical clothing choices consist of jeans or cargo pants in the winter and shorts in the summer, along with a T-shirt. He favors bright colors and slogans or amusing images on his shirts, and often goes without a jacket in any weather.

He tends to walk slightly hunched over, with his shoulders rounded, as he's very self-conscious about his height. At all times he wears two bracelets on his right wrist - both braided 'Chinese Staircase' thread bracelets, one in varying shades of blue and green, the other in rainbow colors. On his left wrist he wears a leather cuff. Both of his ears are pierced, but he typically only wears a single tiny gold hoop in his right ear. When the class was taken to participate in SOTF, he was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans, black sneakers, and an LGBTerrific! t-shirt.

Biography: Erik is the son of Annie Charlton, an open-minded and somewhat eccentric magazine editor, and Vincent Laurin, a born-and-bred Quebecois who'd moved to the States to start a restaurant. The two of them married after a year together, and two months later, Erik was born. After her maternity leave, Annie left her job to come and work with Vincent at the restaurant, effectively raising Erik on her hip as she waited tables and cooked. The restaurant soon became surprisingly successful, and Annie returned to editing a small 'hippie-type' magazine on the side. This left her time to raise Erik, now three, as well as Erik's new sibling - a girl, Kimberly.

By the time Erik was starting school, he had both Kimberly and another brother, Pierre, at home. With Annie typically at home with the children and Vincent at the restaurant, Erik often helped his mother with what small things he could do, and loved both of his siblings. As school continued, he found that he had a love and talent for writing, and always carried a small notepad and pen along with him, the better to scribble down ideas for stories and poetry.

When he was in the sixth grade, his family had expanded to include not only Kimberly and Pierre, but also the twins (both girls) Morgan and Charlotte, three cats, two dogs, assorted fish, and Annie's mother. That year, however, Annie was diagnosed with uterine cancer. Erik spent much of the year caring for his siblings as Annie underwent painful treatments. In the end and after a hysterectomy, the cancer went into remission, but Erik always remembered the constant fear of death that had hung over the house.

After his mother's cancer, his father spent more time at the restaurant, working hard to make up for medical bills and, Erik suspected, so that he wouldn't have to face just how much the cancer had changed Annie. Erik began to spend his free time at home, as opposed to with friends or at extracurricular activities, throwing himself into the act of raising his brothers and sisters. His mother's illness made him see death around every corner, constantly worrying about accidents and becoming decidedly overcautious.

In grade 10, his mother began to see a psychologist, and eventually convinced Erik to come as well. Seeing the psychologist helped Erik somewhat with his anxiety, and he slowly became more outgoing, eventually joining Track and Field and interacting more with his peers. His height and the fact he had been previously withdrawn made some people nervous of him, and as he began to make friends again he was acutely aware of this. To his surprise, it was somewhat useful, as he was often able to stare down or intimidate actual bullies away from their targets. Although he preferred to stay away from actual physical fights, he would get into a scrap if he felt morally obliged too, and became known as something of a 'Robin Hood' type.

Around this time, he also became increasingly aware of his sexuality. Never particularly interested in girls, he finally came out both to himself and his parents at the beginning of grade 11. Both parents supported him completely, although at school there were always those who were unimpressed with how open he was. In the end, he dealt with it as he'd always dealt with things - ignore it unless it was a direct threat to himself or someone he cared for. Now that grade 12 has rolled around, he's had a couple of boyfriends and continues to participate in Track and Field events, keeps an eye on his various siblings, and gets average grades. His circle of friends tends to be wide and varied, and he's become much more outgoing then he used to be. He still has some anxiety about death and often worries about loved ones, but he's trying to learn how to let this go. He continues to carry a notepad and paper around with him wherever he goes, and works part-time in his father's restaurant waiting tables.

Advantages: He's made many friends over the years, and although he's not known as a 'popular kid', has the advantage of most people thinking of him as a nice guy. His height would would probably help in hand to hand fighting, and his training for Track and Field means that he's fast and coordinated.

Disadvantages: His openness about his sexuality as well as his small Robin Hood complex have probably rubbed a few people wrong. He has no formal hand-to-hand combat or weapons training, and his need to stick up for the underdog could easily result in him getting into a situation while trying to defend someone. He trusts extremely easily, making him easy prey for anyone with a decent story, and his anxieties about death would put him at high risk for a breakdown.

Designated Number: Male Student no. 9

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Designated Weapon: A DVD of "A Chinese Torture Chamber Story"

Conclusion: ...Huh, I was wondering where that had got to. I hope Mr. Laurin doesn't bleed too much over it when he's inevitably slaughtered, I'd rather like to get it back.

'The above biography is as written by faceinabook. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: faceinabook, Inky

Kills: None

Killed By: Aaron Hughes

Collected Weapons: A DVD of "A Chinese Torture Chamber Story" (Assigned Weapon)

Allies: Kimberly Nguyen

Enemies: None

Mid-game Evaluation:

Post-Game Evaluation:

Memorable Quotes:

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Erik, in chronological order.

The Past:
 * Twelve

Pre-Game:
 * Cooling down
 * An Apple a Day
 * Ego Sum Volo Futuris
 * Love Means What it Means
 * Light up the Night
 * The Dance Must go on!

V4:
 * Come & See
 * Gypsy Rap
 * The Lost Boys
 * Pull My Daisy, Tip My Cup
 * Burn On
 * Everybody Knows

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Erik Lauren. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Erik is another character who I am quite fond of. He's also one I'm very biased towards, since he very directly played into a lot of my stuff in-game. I'll go ahead and say, right at the start, that Erik has a short in-game story. It's something that can easily be criticized, and honestly I really do wish he'd had a lot more screen time. At fifteenth place, he was in only six threads in V4, and two of them were incredibly short.

That said, Erik himself is a fascinating, realistic character who moved me like almost nobody else in the history of SOTF has. He stayed true to himself while going through struggles and doubts and such and it all was stuff I could relate to personally and clearly. Rose is a fantastic writer, and she really brought her A-game with Erik. He could be serious, funny, and touching all at once. He had a family who cared about him, and he cared so deeply for others, even when that feeling wasn't mutual. Erik really shone in small interactions, and he was an important part of many characters' pregame stories. He didn't do a lot in game, and I sure wish he'd gotten a chance to do more, but his posts while Rose is at the helm all are great stuff. It's hard to go into because I am very very biased, as stated, but I think Erik was a really special character. - MurderWeasel